GD wins US Navy $4.6bn submarine contracts

The US Navy has awarded $4.6bn worth of contracts to General Dynamics (GD) Electric Boat to deliver next-generation strategic deterrent submarine, as well as continue construction and support services of Virginia-class attack submarines.

The company has been awarded a five-year, cost-plus-fixed-fee $1.85bn contract to carry out research and development in support of the new class of ballistic-missile submarine design.

Construction of the new type of submarine is scheduled to start in 2021 and will replace the US Navy's existing Ohio-class vessels.

"These awards provide the stability to the submarine industrial base that will allow us to achieve even greater cost reduction through improved efficiencies."

As part of the contract, development of the joint US Navy/Royal Navy common missile compartment in support of Ohio-class replacement submarine and the UK Successor-class ballistic-missile submarine programmes will also be performed.

The contract also involves providing shipbuilder and vendor component and technology development, engineering integration, concept design studies, cost reduction initiatives using a design for affordability process, and full scale prototype manufacturing and assembly.

Scheduled for completion by September 2017, work under the programme will be conducted across the US in Groton in Connecticut, Newport News in Virginia, Quonset in Rhode Island and Bath, Maine, with the Naval Sea Systems Command serving as the contracting activity.

Under the second $2.5bn contract, Electric Boat will partner with Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) to construct 17th and 18th Virginia-class submarines for the US Navy, in USS South Dakota (SSN-790) and USS Delaware (SSN-791).

The US Navy has also given $308m to Electric Boat to provide lead-time materials to build next three Virginia-class submarines, SSN-792, SSN-793 and SSN-794.

Electric Boat president Kevin Poitras said: "These awards provide the stability to the submarine industrial base that will allow us to achieve even greater cost reduction through improved efficiencies in support of the navy's submarine force-level requirements."